New Delhi: Issuing notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the order of Allahabad High Court, which had imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on former Samajwadi Party MLA, Kishore Samrite.

The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court had last month slapped a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on Samrite who had moved a habeas corpus petition against Rahul alleging he had kept in captivity a girl and her parents, which later turned out to be false.

The Apex Court also issued notices to the UP government and four other people in connection with the sexual exploitation case.

A bench of justices VS Sirpurkar and T S Thakur while staying the High Court order, which had also directed a CBI probe against the former legislator, asked the respondents to file their replies within four weeks.

What did the girl Kirti Singh say?

A similar petition was filed by Gajendra Pal Singh, who claimed to be a relative of Sukanya, after which the court ordered the DGP to produce the girl and her parents before it.

The girl told the court that her actual name is Kirti Singh and that Balram Singh and Sushila are her parents and their identification was done by in charge of Amethi police station.

The girl also informed the court that neither she nor her parents were under illegal detention of any person nor has she any information regarding the news item being displayed by the website.

On the basis of deposition made by Kirti, the court imposed the hefty cost on the petitioner and taking suo moto cognisance of an effort to defame a high profile personality, ordered a CBI probe.